Shahbaz placates alienated MPs

LAHORE: A group of ruling PML-N parliamentarians feeling alienated because of some policies of the party leadership, have reportedly been assured by the Punjab chief minister of resolution of their issues at the earliest.

Around four dozen MNAs have ganged up against Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and a couple of other elected and non-elected PML-N leaders and hurled veiled threats of not voting for the budget 2016-17 when it would be tabled in the National Assembly.

But reports suggest that Shahbaz Sharif immediately intervened and assured the angry lawmakers that their issues concerning the rural population would be given due importance and resolved.

Senior PML-N leaders approached by Dawn claimed that the MPs were mainly annoyed over not being given any job quota against the past practice, particularly for senior and/or lucrative posts, during the ongoing tenure of the party.

Taking advantage of the absence of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif due to his illness, these MNAs formed a pressure group to get their near and dear ones accommodated in “lucrative” departments like Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB) etc, they added.

They dispelled the impression that the pressure group was a reaction to the alleged arrogant attitude of Ishaq Dar, Maryam Nawaz or any other party office-bearer and that it was being backed by Shahbaz Sharif or Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar.

They argued that Shahbaz could not be behind the move because he was more notorious for concentrating power in his own person than his elder brother Nawaz and prefers company of bureaucrats to fellow politicians. Likewise, Nisar too was inaccessible most of the times even to senior government officials as he takes pride in never having a mobile phone what to talk of giving audience to “poor” MPs, they added.